High Card Points (HCP)

High card points ("HCP") are the cornerstone of hand evaluation. They represent numeric values for each honor card:

Ace = 4 points
King = 3 points
Queen = 2 points
Jack = 1 points

Thus, each suit contains a total of 10 HCP, and every deal (52 cards) contains a total of 40 HCP. The maximum for a single hand is 37 HCP, e.g.

AKQJ AKQ AKQ AKQ

Opening the Bidding

First and foremost, HCP are used to decide if a hand is strong enough to open the bidding. The general rule is that you need at least 12 HCP to open the bidding at the 1-level. Example:

JT98 T2 A9 AK865

This hand contains 12 HCP and is strong enough to open 1.

QJ987 A42 A92 76

In contrast, this hand only has 11 HCP and is not strong enough to open 1.

Treatments

A treatment is a partnership agreement about the specific meaning of a natural bid. Examples of treatments in Standard American opening bids:

1 / = 3+ clubs / diamonds

1 / = 5+ hearts / spades (i.e. 5-card majors)

1NT = 15-17 HCP with "balanced" distribution (i.e. no singleton/void, and no more than one doubleton)

The following hand contains 16 HCP and therefore warrants a 1NT opening bid:

AK3 A98 AJ92 T76

Side note: in the old days, a 1NT opening bid promised 16-18 HCP. This is why bridge newspaper columns typically show 1NT bids containing exactly 16-17 HCP - to keep all readers happy.

High card points are also used to determine the appropriate response to an opening bid. 6 HCP are generally considered the minimum for responding to a natural 1/// opening bid.

Conventions

A convention is a partnership agreement about the meaning of an uncommon or artificial bid. High card points are frequently used to define conventional agreements. Examples of conventions in Standard American opening bids:

Adjustments to HCP

All four aces. Many players add a point when holding all four aces. The rationale is that aces are slightly undervalued in the 4-3-2-1 HCP system.

Queens and jacks. Pretty much everyone agrees that queens and jacks are worth a bit less than 2 HCP and 1 HCP, respectively. Therefore, a hand with "soft values" that contains 12 HCP is commonly passed, e.g.:

QJ3 QT987 KJ4 QJ

Singleton and doubleton honors. Hands containing singleton and doubleton honors are often worth less than their HCP indicate. For example, a queen-jack doubleton is technically 3 HCP, but may provide little or no value if the opponents hold the ace-king of the suit. (The queen and jack simply get squashed when the opponents play their ace and king.)

Suit texture. The HCP system does not assign values to "interior" cards like tens and nines, but they are definitely worth some fractional value. For instance, would you rather hold KJT98 or KJ432?

Contextual auction considerations. Honor cards can increase or decrease in value, depending on the auction. For example, say you open 1 with:

KJ3 AQT98 A94 32

Now your left-hand opponent overcalls 1. Your KJ3 has just lost some value because of the increased probability of your opponent holding AQxxx.

Origins

High card points were popularized by American bridge icon Charles Goren in the first half of the 20th century. Goren, in turn, borrowed from Milton Work's original 4-3-2-1 method of counting points in auction bridge during the Roaring Twenties. High card points remain one of the most basic and essential guidelines today.